Automatic fire-extinguisher.



M. ANDREWS. AUTOMATIC FIRE XTlNGUISHER.

APPLICATION FILED JUE 22, 1909.

Patented' oct. 4, 1910.

MARTIN ANDREWS, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC i FIRE-EXTINGUISHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented @et d, MV10.

. Application filed June 22, 1909. Serial No. 503,760. v

To all whom-'it may concern:-

Be it known that I, MARTIN ANDREWS, a

citizen of the United States, residing atV Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Fire-EX- tinguishers, of which the following is a specification. i

The present invention relates to a sprinkler head which belongs to what is known as the strut class of sprinklers and the distinctive characteristic of which is a strut proper made up of two posts the remote ends of which bear against the cap or valve and the yoke, or a tightening screw or other device carried thereby,l respectively while their adjacent ends bear against each other, either mediately, through the medium of a roller or other thirdpart interposed between them or immediately (directly) but whether the bearing be mediate or. immediate, said bearing is slightly offset, or-to one side of the straight line passing from the points of contact of the remote ends of the posts with the cap or valve and yoke, respectively, after the manner` of a togg e. Sprinklers of this c lass are well known to those skilled in the art.

The invention relates more particularly to a sprinkler belonging to the above-described class, of that type `in which arms extend laterally from the parts on toggle members and are normally held in such positions relatively to each other as tol prevent the toggle from buckling, until the sprinkler is sub-- jected to a predetermined abnormal temperature, whereupon a solder joint, by which the arms are held in normal positions under normal temperatures, fuses and allows the ams te move asunde and permit the toggle to buckle, thereby releasing the cap or valve. Each of the posts or toggle members and its laterally projecting arm constitutes what is known in the artas a bent lever and these bent levers are the distinctive characteristics of this bent lever typev of the strut or toggle class of sprinklers. In a bent lever sprinkler the pointsof contact between the remote ends of the posts or toggle members and the cap or valve and the yoke', respectively, constitute the fulcra about whichthe' bent levers turn and it is in the hereinafter described novel relative arrangen'ient o't the active or working points or surfaces of the bent levers that the 'present invention consists,I in pakt, the object oi" this part of the invention bcing to evenly and luniformly distribute the strains upon the solder joint lot a composite tie-plate by which the lever arms are con`- nected and held in normal positions, so that the strains upon said solder joint and the strains put upon those surfaces of the tie-plate upon which the lever arms bear shall, throughout the contacting surfaces of the tieplates and lever arms, be perpendicular, or substantially perpendicularl to the radii of the'fulcra. ot the bent levers.v

The invention relates, irl-part also, to the construction of the tie-plate nf'hereby the sliding of any of the surfaces of the tie-platte upon .any of the surfaces of the lever arms, when the solder joint of the tie-plate is fused and Athe lever arms are moving asunder, is entirely prevented.

Other objects ofthe invention are, to provide an improved sprinkler of such construction `that under normal conditions the valve holding device shall have great holding' powers, while, at the same time, thesolder joint of the tie-plate shall be highly sensitive and quickly responsive to a predetermined abnormal temperature and all of the displaceable parts of the' valve holding device be so constructed that upon the fusing of the solder joint of the tie-plate, all of said displaceable parts shall ily asunder quickly and with absolute certainty. i

OtherI novel features in which the, invention consists, in part, and their objects will appear hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing which is made a part ot this specification Figure l is a side elevation of a sprinkler embodying the invention in its preferred forni. Fig. 2 is a view showing the lever arms and tieplate in section on the line 2 2, Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a 'perspective of one of the bent levers. Fig. 4 is a view ,similar to Fig. showing a Slight modification of the tie-plate.

All of the several lfigures ot' 'the drawing are on a scale of 2 to l, excepting Fig. 2 which is on a scale of 6 to i'.

The yoke or frame ik of the sprinkler may be of any desired construction the one shown in the drawing being somewhat convention alized. A nozzle Ii is carried by the lower side ot. the yoke and extends slightly into the open space bounded by the four sides of the yoke 'for the. discharge of water. The oppo site side of the yoke has a threaded opening through which passes a tension screw C, the lower portion ot which projects into the open spacev of the yoke and is provided with i Cu may here be stated that the details in theconstruction of these parts form no part 4of the present invention, and -they may be varied at will withoutI departing from the spirit and essence of the invention.

The valve-holdingvdevice comprises a pair of bent levers, E, and a composite tie-plate l Gr, each of these parts being constructed and all of them arranged relatively to each other and to the fulcra of the bent levers in the manner now to be described. Each of the bent levers, E, has a part, e, which is the equivalent of a post and these posts are arranged'in approximate alinement between the sockets o r bearings, o and d, upon which the bent levers fulcrum, respectively. The remote ends of the posts e preferably terminate in conical portions, e', the a exes of which are rounded olf so as to fit t e correspondingly shaped bearings or sockets c and .d and permit relative rotation of the parts about the common axis of bearings or sockets andthe conical extremities of the remote ends of the posts. The adjacent ends of the posts bear against' each other at a point oiset from or slightly to one side of the common axis aforesaid, after the manner of a toggle, `of which the posts form members.

As shown in the drawing, the adjacent. ends of the posts or toggle members are provided with rounded grooves or sockets in which a roller F fits. Each of the bent levers E has also an arm e, which projects laterally from the side of the post, and these arms are so shaped that their active or working surfaces are parallel or substantially parallel with radii of the fulcra of the bent levers-- in fact said active or working surfaces preferably lie directly in the planes of said radii as shownl in Fig. 1. The lever arms converge toward their outer ends, following the di-A rections of said radii and are connected by a composite tie-plate G-having active or working faces which bear against the active or working faces of the lever arms e, which, as before stated follow converging radii of the fulora of the bentJ levers. The active or working surfaces of the tie-plate are on flanges g and g which project from opposite sides ofthe tie-plate perpendicularly to the general plane of the main body thereof, and ollow the converging active or working faces of the lever arms. Each of the lever arms has a centrally located, longitudinal slot e2, as shown more clearly on Fig. 3 which extends quite from the outer end of the arm inward, and the main body of the tie-plate passes through these slots so that the flanges g and g may lie fiat against the converging outer surfaces of the lever arms. The com- 4posite tie-plate is made up of three overlapping sheet metal parts g2, g2 and g3. Each of the parts g2 consists of a sheet metal (preferably copper) plate of a single thickness which plates carry the [langes g, and these plates g2 pass through the longitudinal slot of one of the lever arms and at its edge opposite the fiange'g terminates a short distance from but without contacting with o1' entering Vthe longitudinal slot of the other lever arm. The intermediate part g3 is two ply and is made of a sheet metal'plate bent upon itself upon a line parallel with the flanges g, the edges of the two plies, opposite the bend, having the oppositely presented flanges g. -The bent or folded edge of the two ply part g3 may extend any desired distance into or through the slot e2 in the adj acent lever arm as shown .in Fig. 4 or it may terminate upon a line inside of said arm as shown in Fig. 2 and indicated'by a dotted line in Fig. 1. In any event the parts g2 are out of contact with one of the lever arms and the part g3 is out of contact with the other of said lever arms, so that when the solder joint which normally holds the component parts of the tie plate together fuses there will be no sliding of one part upon the other. The sheet metal plates of which the composite tie-plate is made up may be per- -fectly flat as shown in Fig. 4, or they may have nested corrugations, G, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and these corrugations may' be of any desired shape in cross section; is shown in the drawing they are of rounded cross section, they are related to each other in the form of a V and they areparallel with the workin faces of the lever-arms e and 'so farvas t is feature of thp invention is concerned, it is limited to. this parallelism of the corrugations and the working faces of the lever-arms, the object being to cause all of the strains upon the corrugations to fall at right angles to them,

thus avoiding any twlstin'g orshearing effect.

The invention havin been originally designed and being particularly adapted for sprinkler heads, this embodiment of it has been selected for illustrating and describing it for the purposes of this application but it .will be understood by those skilled in the art that some of its features are equally applicable to other lire extinguishing apparatus in which two parts are to be held asundei under normal atmospheric conditidns, by t holding device which gives way and releases said parts when subjected to a supernormal temperature.

lYhat I cla-im as ne7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

i1. In an automatic fire extinguishing appaa tie-plate for holding them invnormal positions, each of said bent levers comprising a post or toggle-member and a lever-arm projecting laterally therefrom, the adjacent' ends of the posts or toggle-members bearing against each other While their remote ends are fulcrumed to the aforesaid parts to be held asunder, respectively, the lever-arms and tie-plate having engaging surfaces lying in planes parallel or substantially parallel with the radii of the fulcra of the bent levers.

2. A sprinkler for automatic fire extinguishers, having a yoke, a nozzle, a capor valve adapted to the nozzle, and a valve holding device, the said valve holding device having, in combination, a pair of bent levers and a tie-plate for holding them in normal positions, each of said bent levers comprisin a post or toggle-member, the adjacent en s of which posts or toggle-members bear against each other While their remote ends are fulcrumed to the cap or valve and the yoke, respectively, and each of said bent levers having also a lever-arm projecting laterally from its post or toggle-member, said lever-arms and tie-plate having active or Working surfaces engaging each other and lyin 1n planes parallel or, substantially paral el with the radii of the fulcra'of the bentlevers.

3. In an automatic 'fire extinguishing apparatus the combination with two be held asunder, of a holding device, said holding device having a pair of bent levers and a tie-plate, each of said bent levers havarts to.

ing a post or'toggle-member the adjacent ends of which. posts or tog le-members bear against each other While t eir remote ends are fulcrumed tothe aforesaid parts to -be held asunder, respectively, each of said bent levers having also a lever-arm projectin laterally fromits post or togglesmember an slotted longitudinally, said lever-arms having active or Working surfaces which are parallel or substantially parallel with planes of the radii ofthe fulcra of the bent levers and said tie-plate occupying the longitudinal slots of the lever-arms and havin active working surfaces which contact irectly with the active or Working surfaces of the lever-arms.

4:. A sprinkler for automatic fire extinguishers having a valve holding device com prising, in combination, a pair of bent levers, each of said bent levers having a post or toggleemember and an arm projecting 'faces engaging vthe active or Working sul faces of the lever-arms, the plates of which said tie-plate is composed'sbeing provided with nestin or interengagiu'g iutes or cor rugations W ich are paral el with the Working surfaces aforesaid.

MARTIN ANDREWS. Witnesses L. M. HOPKINS, GRACE A; SOUTHWELL.

60 laterally therefrom, and av composite tie- 

